Monster
by Synchronized Harmony
Summary: Azula vs Elsa. Contains character death... maybe. (If you squint, she could have used her powers to save herself later)


The Ice queen was hiding.

Pathetic.

How typical of people like her to freeze an entire country, then run away and hide in the mountains. If Azula had power like that, then she would use it better. She would teach the country to know her name.

However Azula had to concede that the power Elsa had displayed was greater than her own. Azula couldn't set a country on fire for a whim.  
But she hadn't come worried. It was much better to come prepared.

She looked up- and gasped. Well. That was a large castle made of ice. It was, of course, completely artistic and rather indefensible, but for a large structure made entirely of ice carved into a mountainside? Whoa.

She cautiously stalked her way to the bottom of the ice bridge- and stopped.

The pile of ice on her left suddenly roared to life, forming a massive monster of snow. It was vaguely shaped like a man, but with limbs far beyond human size. It charged at her, each step shaking the ground-

Azula stepped back smoothly and incinerated the beast with a blast of azure flame. The thing's arms melted in seconds, but it's core was still alive. Well, that made it less dangerous-

Wait. Was it regenerating? So this ice queen could not only make life, but self-healing life? Hah. This was getting interesting!  
Of course, she wasn't going to let the... thing regenerate. Another blast of fire reduced the snowman to a puddle.

If she could get access to the sun, she would have taken only one blast to finish this thing off. Pathetic.

A flash of blue caught her attention, and she whirled. A figure stood at the top of the frozen staircase. Was that the ice queen?  
She was gorgeous, enough to make Azula envious. Well, that was another reason to kill her anyway. Like she had needed another one.

"Queen Elsa, I presume?" Azula said, struggling to make her voice heard over the whistling of the wind. Perhaps she could trick the queen into thinking she was no danger?

Elsa raised her arms, and the bridge shattered to pieces. So much for that plan.

The ice queen whirled, and fled back into her castle. Azula smirked. She had predicted the queen would run instead of fight. Someone doesn't 'suddenly manifest powers' like that, for no-one to have known, all this time... she must have been hiding her true nature. Which meant that she was... afraid.  
Azula licked her lips. Oh, how she loved fear!

Azula took a running leap, and flew out over the crevasse. She sailed, sailed, and then began to fall. That was when she blasted jets of flame from her hands and feet, keeping herself aloft long enough to span the distance and reach the other side.

She almost slipped down the side of the castle, but she was able to make handholds by burning holes in the ice. With a grunt, she heaved herself up and over the crevasse rim. She stood before the closed doors of the ice castle.

Simple enough to open. Two consecutive blasts of blue flame made a hole big enough to enter through. She stepped through cautiously-

"Who are you?"

Azula looked up, and saw the queen standing at the top of the stairs. She was talking. Good. If she was talking, she couldn't be too ruthless. A ruthless queen with those kinds of powers would have been very dangerous.  
Then again, Azula wouldn't have entered this fight if she wasn't confident she would win.

"A friend." Azula replied, with calculated amounts of suspicion and warmth.

"I don't believe you." Elsa said. She took a step back.  
Ash. The queen was not a complete fool.

"What are you afraid of, queen Elsa? Is it that unbelievable that someone would want to be friends with you? After all, we are alike."

Elsa lowered her eyebrows.  
"Get out. If you stay, you won't be safe. I'm dangerous."

That was supposed to be a threat, but to Azula, it was just a weakness.  
"Just how dangerous can you be, queen Elsa? Have people told you so? Was that why you locked yourself away for so long, hiding your powers?"

"Get out." Elsa said coldly.

"I know how you feel," Azula continued, igniting a small tongue of fire on the end of her finger. "Like I said, we are alike."  
Hah. The queen couldn't have ever seen anyone with powers other than herself before.

"You don't have to be alone, Queen Elsa."

Elsa opened her mouth, then stopped. She was conflicted, Azula could tell. She probably felt like throwing her out but- there would be that niggling thought at the back of her head, that part of her that wanted to reach out to another being without fear of hurting them, but feeling too alien to do so-

Azula smirked. It was a good thing she was so skilled at _pretending_ to understand what that felt like.

"I'm happy alone." Elsa said at last. "You couldn't live here, up in the mountains with me."

Guard, down. Azula brought her hand up in a lightning-fast motion, turning the small flame on her finger into a long stream of blue fire, that streamed up in a flawless arc, directly at the queen-

And then split off the shield of ice that had suddenly appeared in front of Elsa. Ash! The girl had good reflexes. There went her element of surprise.

Elsa looked down the stairs with a look of... was that _betrayal?_

Hah, this was too good! Already feeling betrayed! Azula just loved it when people reacted so readily to her. They were all so sadly predictable.

Azula wasted no more time, racing up the stairs on feet laced with fire. No way she was trusting her feet to this witch's staircase.

Elsa's betrayed expression changed to one of fury, and suddenly, the stairs were sprouting icicles beneath Azula's feet. The fire was a good decision then. Taking a deep breath, she focused the chi in her feet, then let it IGNITE. Azula leaped into the air even as the staircase fell to pieces beneath her.

Elsa was bringing her hands up- NO! Azula let loose a stream of fire, cutting off Elsa's attack and forcing her off balance. Aula landed in front of the queen, and whipped her hand forwards-

But another wall of ice sprouted up between them, and then the growth launched itself at the fire princess.  
Azula flipped around it easily. The queen fought less like a waterbender and more like an earthbender, standing, relying on walls and brute power. No match for real skill.

Azula lashed out with flame, more to distract than to really hurt the queen. As predicted, the queen blocked, but by then, Azula had already moved to another angle, two more gouts of azure fire arcing through the air towards the queen.

Elsa's expression had changed from fury to fear, she was starting to fight for her life. This was the most dangerous part of the fight-

Ice! Around her foot! A quick blast of fire freed her, but another lightning-fast wall of ice lashed itself at Azula, brimming with dangerous-looking icicles.  
Hmmph. Azula leaped, landing on top of an icicle, and then leaped behind the wall, unleashing an attack of her own. This was the philosophy of the fire nation, to attack, attack, always attack.

Elsa was losing ground fast, blocking and dodging, backing off but not getting further away. For every wall she made to protect herself, that was one more ice blast she wasn't launching at Azula.

"You said you were dangerous!" Azula laughed, "You should have stayed in your room!"

Elsa swung her hands, a massive wall of ice swirling around her, completely encompassing her. Azula could see the queen's outline as she summoned more of those ice-minions, gathering them behind her wall.

Azula laughed. How very like her to enclose herself away when she ran into trouble

"You can't hide! You can't freeze an entire country then just run away!"

The wall of ice began to frost, losing it's flawless texture as icicles began to sprout from it's surface. Behind the wall, Elsa paused.

"Just leave me alone!" came the voice from the other side, "Up here I can't hurt anybody. Just go away!"

"Your country is frozen." Azula said, tilting her head. "They sent me to get rid of you."  
A lie. Elsa believed it, judging by the growth of icicles around her.

"No..."

Azula brought her arms up and swirled them around her head in the lightning-bending form. Elsa was oblivious behind her wall, no doubt feeling safe with her newly created army.

Azula released lightning, the destructive power tearing through the queen's ice wall like tissue paper, blasting straight towards Elsa-

But Elsa's army threw themselves in the way. An explosion tore through the room, filling it with smoke and mist. Azula covered her eyes. Did she get her?  
A tense moment of silence, as Azula squinted her eyes, trying to see through the shadows...

"You're lying!" A blast of ice tore from the smoke, and Azula had to block for the first time. Then again. Then again.  
"ARENDELLE CAN"T BE FROZEN!"  
Another blast of ice, the another. They were getting stronger-

"I concealed myself for so long! It was just once! My country can't be frozen so quickly!"

Azula had to stop to take a breath, her chi all but spent- In that instant, a final blast of ice, larger than all the others, tore through Azula's defence and caught her in the waist, sending her flying backwards against the wall. She tried to rise, her armor absorbing most of the impact-

But the ice was growing, growing out from where it had struck her to cover her feet and hands. This was bad. This was very bad.

"Why did you come here?"  
Elsa stepped from the shadows, her icy clothes regenerating as she regarded the trapped princess.

Azula was all but completely trapped, any ice she melted just refreezing in seconds. Her hands and feet were beginning to feel numb.

"ANSWER ME!" Elsa demanded.

Azula stopped struggling. She couldn't get out with strength or with fire. She was trapped.  
Why did she come here? The challenge? Envy?  
Did she just want to erase the competition?  
No.  
There was something deeper. Azula smiled.

The fire princess whispered something as the ice crept up her neck and over her cheeks. It was so obvious and so simple. So weak.

"What was that?" Elsa asked, stepping forwards.

Azula looked up and met the queen's eyes. Gold held blue for a single, eternal moment.  
A gamble. A final lie, an insult she had purposefully held back.

The truth.

"I wanted to see if you were a monster like me."

Elsa's expression was priceless. She wouldn't have looked more shocked if Azula had struck her with a lightning bolt. The princess guessed how she felt. The same way she herself had felt, like your world had dropped out from under you, all your actions regarded in a harsh new light-

Then Azula spat blue fire into her chest, enough the completely immolate the queen.

The ice around the fire princess melted as the queen fell. Azula dropped to the floor alongside her, gasping and hacking as she struggled to her feet.

She regarded the burning ice queen coldly. There were screams, horrible hacking, soul murdering screams.  
Azula made a swift motion and extinguished the flames.

Bile rose in her throat. Maybe the queen would live... but she wouldn't be beautiful again.

The fire princess kneeled beside the ice queen.

"I was wrong." she said.


End file.
